THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme which Zambia seeks to acquire soon will mainly focus on fiscal consolidation among other areas, says secretary to the treasury, Fredson Yamba.

Mr Yamba said in an interview that Government would mainly channel the US$1 billion fund from the IMF in ensuring that fiscal consolidation was aligned with the monetary side of the national Budget.

He however said the fund would also be used for other areas such as infrastructure development, not only on building roads, but hydro, tourism and value addition.

“Areas of investment with the IMF programme include, as we have already indicated, that we want to focus on infrastructure development not only the roads but also the hydro, tourism, value addition and so forth. These are our main areas of focus.

“But really the fund programme is to make sure that we do the consolidation of the fiscal in such a way that it is aligned to the monetary side; so these are the issues that we will discuss in-depth with the fund,” he said.

Mr Yamba also said discussions with the IMF mission for the possible programme would resume as soon as Cabinet was formed.

He explained that Government would formerly write to the mission once a Minister of Finance was appointed and ready to engage in the discussions.

“For the talks resuming, we will have to wait for Cabinet to be put in place so that whoever the minister is now we can formerly write to the fund and make sure the minister is available and official communication with ourselves and the fund itself is made,’’ he said.